


Wedding Plans

by lirin



Category: Oxford Time Travel Universe - Connie Willis
Genre: F/M, Wedding Planning, World War II, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-18 10:12:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13097919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lirin/pseuds/lirin
Summary: Eileen doesn’t want to get married on 6 August 1945.





	Wedding Plans

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Izilen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Izilen/gifts).



> Thanks to drayton for betaing.
> 
> This story is a standalone but can be considered a loose sequel to my story "[The Real VE-Day](http://archiveofourown.org/works/12866754)".

Mr. Goode proposes on the first of June, less than two weeks after he comes home from the war. Eileen accepts whole-heartedly; it's hardly unexpected, and definitely not unwanted. His next suggestion is a bit more of a surprise.

"What, tomorrow?" she exclaims. "What about a dress, and guests, and cake? I'm only going to get married once in my life, you know, Ezra."

"I certainly hope once will be enough," he replies. "How long do you need? Will a week be sufficient?"

Fortunately, her new fiancé has a mother who understands the practical side of weddings. When he brings Eileen and the children over to announce their engagement, Mrs. Goode immediately teams up with Eileen to talk some sense into him and explain the complexities.

"You can't just buy a wedding dress off the peg," Mrs. Goode says. "If you want to borrow the dress, I know a couple people who might have one. But all of them are smaller than dear Eileen, so we'll need time for alterations. And we'll need to save ration coupons for the cake, and you'll want to order flowers. I'd say it would take at least four months to make all the arrangements, but I know you young people are in a hurry, so we could probably make it happen in two. It wouldn't be perfect, but at the end of the day, you'd be married, and that's what's most important."

"Two months?" Ezra exclaims. "But by then, I'll have returned to work. We won't be able to have our wedding on a weekend."

"Then have it on a Monday," Mrs. Goode says. "Your guests will understand that a vicar is too busy to get married on a Saturday or a Sunday." She flips through the calendar. "How about the first Monday in August? The sixth."

"If that's the soonest you think would be practical," Ezra says. He looks disconsolate at the prospect of remaining unmarried for so long.

Eileen is dismayed as well, but for a different reason. "What about the week before that?" she asks. "I...the birthday of a childhood friend of mine was the 6th of August. I'd rather not get married on her birthday."

"The church is having a summer festival on the 30th of July," Mrs. Goode says. "I don't think it will be available for weddings."

"Well, we don't have to decide immediately," Eileen says. "We can start saving up ration coupons and determine who we're inviting before we book the church. And Ezra and I need more time to talk about this."

 

They spend the night at Ezra's mother's house, and the date of the wedding isn't mentioned again. Every other aspect of weddings is, though; Mrs. Goode has strong opinions about flowers and dress designs, and after going without both of those things for so long, Eileen is happy to discuss every detail.

They take the train back to London late the following morning. Binnie asks about Eileen's childhood friend before they've gone two stops; Eileen supposes she should be grateful she waited until they'd left the house. "Not on the train," Eileen whispers.

"She doesn't exist, does she?" Binnie whispers back.

"Not on the train!" Eileen hisses, louder this time. She endures Alf's, Binnie's, and Ezra's piercing stares all the way home.

 

She waits until they're inside the house and the door is closed before she will answer them further. Ezra has accompanied them home, which he doesn't always do, but no doubt he wants to hear her explanation as much as the children do.

She owes them an explanation. They're her family. She's building a life with them, and that takes trust. But sometimes she wonders how much abuse the space–time continuum can take. "I just want to be a little selfish for once," she bursts out. "The date we're choosing is going to be our anniversary. I'll be celebrating that date for the rest of my life. I want to choose a date that doesn't have any shadows on it."

"What sort of shadows?" Binnie asks. She looks scared.

"Oh, no, nothing like...well, like whatever you're thinking." Eileen realizes that Alf and Ezra look worried too. She should have thought about this more, come up with a different way to explain.

"If you tell us what's going to happen, I promise we won't tell anybody!" Alf says.

"I know you would try not to," Eileen tells him. "But if you slipped up, the consequences would be too severe."

Ezra understands. She's had many serious conversations with him on this exact topic. "Your mother," he says, "knows things that nobody else in our time knows. If people found out what she knows, they wouldn't think she's a time traveler—"

"—they'd think I'm a spy." And now Eileen's feeling a bit scared, too. She sits down on the couch all in a heap.

Ezra hurries to sit down next to her. "But fortunately, Alf and Binnie and I are very good at keeping secrets." He looks sternly at the children. "Aren't we?"

Binnie nods vigorously. "Mum didn't even know that we knew her secret until years after we found out."

Alf nods, too. "And we didn't tell nobody what we thought about her. We even pretended that we really believed Polly went to Canada with that ARP warden."

"I don't want you to have to keep secrets," Eileen says. "I mean to keep everything to myself—but maybe that won't be entirely possible. There may be times I'll slip up. I slipped up today. But I...I still don't want to get married on the sixth."

"There's an old rhyme about days to get married on," Ezra says. "Maybe you've heard it. 'Monday for wealth, and Tuesday for health'...I don't remember the rest."

"I don't know about you," Eileen says, "but I don't care much about wealth. I've got you three, and that's enough for me."

"I was thinking the same thing," he says. "I'd rather have health than wealth, myself. Shall I see if the church is available on a Tuesday?"

"The 31st of July sounds like a nice date to get married on," Eileen says.

"What about if that isn't available?"

"I think I could stand to enter into the state of wedded bliss a week earlier, if necessary," Eileen says. "Just not too much earlier than that, if possible. I do want time to get a nice dress."

"I'll see what I can do." He wraps his arm around her, and she curls into his side.

Eileen feels so lucky to be here. She has more of a family here than she ever had back in Oxford, with a man who truly cares about her. She'll just have to save her ration coupons very carefully; she wants her wedding photos to be something she can enjoy looking back on.

"Mum?" Binnie asks. She's still standing by the couch, and she still looks worried.

"Yes?"

"What's going to happen on the 6th of August?"

"Whatever it is, we'll find out with everyone else," Ezra says. "And we'll be fine, because we have each other. And because we made it through this war, and if we can do that, there's not much we can't do."

Eileen puts a hand on his arm. "I can't tell you everything, Binnie, but I can tell you it's not something you need to be frightened of. It's just...you know the war in Japan can't go on long, now that the war in Europe has ended."

"But if the war is going to end, isn't that good?" Alf asks.

"It's mostly good," she says. "But that doesn't mean everything that happens is good." She takes Ezra's hand again. "That's the way life is, isn't it? Lots of good things, but bad things as well along the way."

"But not our wedding," Ezra says. "Our wedding is going to be perfect."

 

It isn't perfect, not exactly. Alf falls into a mud puddle (on accident, or so he claims) five minutes before he's due to walk Eileen down the aisle. Binnie loses her bridesmaid's bouquet right before they take photos. One of Ezra's parishioners decides that their wedding reception is the perfect place to declaim a five-point critique of Ezra's preaching.

But like her mother-in-law said, at the end of the day, they're married. So perhaps Ezra was right after all—it's the perfect wedding.


End file.
